I'm planning to buy a new guitar in about a couple of weeks. What are the things to look for to know if it's a good guitar? (except the price ).At the moment I'm playing on a RichWood Stratocaster. It was a good guitar to start with, but now I'm looking for something with more quality and a warmer sound. I bought the RW cause it was cheap and it was my first Electric guitar.

I like to play Rock music. No metal or shredding, but more rock like U2, Pink Floyd, Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, etc.

I plan to spend about 400 euro.

Any tips? Some recommanded brands? Other things to look for (picks, markers)?

Well, for warm sound, the gibson Les Paul is often recomended. But, you won't get a Gibson LP for 400 euros, however, you can buy a nice Epihpone LP for that price! Other brands in your range are Ibanez and maybe some Schecters.

Things to look for:1. What kind of tremolo do you want? LP's offer a stop tail, so no trem. There are also vintage, non-locking, trems, and full floating ones, like a Floyd Rose.2. you want great pickups already, or are you going to upgrade them?3. Watch the looks, although there are quite some people who only care about the sound

GMC wants YOU to take part in our Guitar-Wikipedia!Have a good time reading great articles and writing your own with us in our GUITAR WIKI!Share your playing and get Pro-advice from our Instructors: Join REC

One of the most important things to me, personally, is the fretboard radius. F.ex a rounded Gibson fretboard feels so good while I can't get along with any of the Schecter models; they are way too flat.So if I were you I'd try to feel and find a neck that suits you and try to stick to that radius. Then of course necks can have different thickness but still for me, a smaller radius will always work better.

An important thing to look for in a budget guitar might be if it's got a floating bridge. Cheaper guitars usually have terrible licensed floyd roses. I strongly recomend a guitar with a fixed bridge or fender-type tremolo in that pricerange.

There's several brands thats got good budget guitars.. take a look at Ibanez, Schecter and Epiphone or LTD. (Most of the LTD guitars are made with metal in mind, but they do have some good and more versatile guitars too)

Do you like the sound of Stratocaster? Do you prefer single or humbucker pickups, or you need a combination of both?

I like the sound of a strat when I hear Mark Knopfler for example, but my current guitar doen't sound warm. Is this caused by my settings? Is it the guitar? What are exactly the differences in sound when you compare a humbucker to a single pickup? Is it a world of difference or isn't it really that important? I would assume it sounds warmer. Sometimes I see a pickup with dots in it and sometimes a see a 'plate' (I don't know the right terms for this. Here's a picture where you see them both (Fender Squier) http://www.chrisguitars.com/pickups-squier-tele-set.jpg). Is there an important difference between them?

QUOTE

A guitar should stay in tune.

How do you know this? Check if the machine heads aren't too lose?

QUOTE

An important thing to look for in a budget guitar might be if it's got a floating bridge.

I know that I'm a newbe when comes to guitar gear, but a floating bridge means that you have a tremolo? Is it possible to have a fixed bridge and a tremolo? Is a tremolo the same as a whammybar? My current guitar has a Floyd rose and when I use it, it sometimes de-tunes the guitar. Are there ways to avoid this? Is this a typical Floyd rose thing and do other tremolo systems don't have this problem? Is it because it's a cheap guitar?

As you see, I'm not really an expert when it comes to guitar gear (not yet ), so I hope you guys can help me further. I'm a bit afraid that the salesmen will convince me to buy a guitar that is not as good as they make me believe it is.

GMC wants YOU to take part in our Guitar-Wikipedia!Have a good time reading great articles and writing your own with us in our GUITAR WIKI!Share your playing and get Pro-advice from our Instructors: Join REC

I know that I'm a newbe when comes to guitar gear, but a floating bridge means that you have a tremolo? Is it possible to have a fixed bridge and a tremolo? Is a tremolo the same as a whammybar? My current guitar has a Floyd rose and when I use it, it sometimes de-tunes the guitar. Are there ways to avoid this? Is this a typical Floyd rose thing and do other tremolo systems don't have this problem? Is it because it's a cheap guitar?

As you see, I'm not really an expert when it comes to guitar gear (not yet ), so I hope you guys can help me further. I'm a bit afraid that the salesmen will convince me to buy a guitar that is not as good as they make me believe it is.

With kind regards,Niels

A Floyd Rose would be a floating bridge and a floating bridge is when you can can bend it up and down. Ordinary tremolos can just bend down. They are basically only bendable in one direction which can save you alot of tuning frustrations. And a fixed bridge is one that lacks all of these features. It's stuck in the same position nomatter what. With a fixed bridge, tuning problems would come down to cheap tuners or simply a badly constructed guitar with cheap wood.

There is a few ways to fix a bad floyd rose. There's a tool called Tremol-no, which locks the bridge in a fixed position.But if it's a cheap guitar then i'm not sure how much i would invest in it.The budget way of doing it would be inserting a small block of wood for example under the Floyd rose to help block it from going in both directions.

I like the sound of a strat when I hear Mark Knopfler for example, but my current guitar doen't sound warm. Is this caused by my settings? Is it the guitar? What are exactly the differences in sound when you compare a humbucker to a single pickup? Is it a world of difference or isn't it really that important? I would assume it sounds warmer. Sometimes I see a pickup with dots in it and sometimes a see a 'plate' (I don't know the right terms for this. Here's a picture where you see them both (Fender Squier) http://www.chrisguitars.com/pickups-squier-tele-set.jpg). Is there an important difference between them?

You can find most info in our Wiki! https://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/Pickup for pickups, there are also articles for Single Coils and Humbuckers, just type in the search! In general, Humbuckers sound warmer, fatter and have a higher output (volume). BTW, this "plate" is just a cover, remove the plate, and you'll see the "dots" (magnets). I think the sound isn't enhanced by the plate.

QUOTE

How do you know this? Check if the machine heads aren't too lose?

If it has a tremolo system, you can just take your tuning device, go crazy on the tremolo and see if it's still in tune! If doesn't have one, it's harder, you can try to play for half an hour, but that's not very normal inside the store

QUOTE

I know that I'm a newbe when comes to guitar gear, but a floating bridge means that you have a tremolo? Is it possible to have a fixed bridge and a tremolo? Is a tremolo the same as a whammybar? My current guitar has a Floyd rose and when I use it, it sometimes de-tunes the guitar. Are there ways to avoid this? Is this a typical Floyd rose thing and do other tremolo systems don't have this problem? Is it because it's a cheap guitar?

I still wanted to let you all know how my new guitar buying adventure ended.

Last tuesday (the 16th of june) my girlfriend and I were 5 years together. We went for a nice diner at a good restaurant and when I came home there stood suddenly an Ibanez RG320dxfm ! First I couldn't believe she bought it for me and I was totally surprised. After pluging it in my amp I was still very happy! It has two nice humbuckers, an Edge III tremelo system and also a locking nut to prevent detuning.Even though I really like the sound and the looks of this guitar I decided to go back to the store to look for other guitars. I wanted to know what other guitars are available and want to compare them. Finally I left the store with the same guitar that my girlfriend bought for me Next week the guitarshop will set up the guitar properly and then I'm ready to rock and roll!

I got my girl from the supermarket where I worked 5 years ago, you can get the other girl at EIG Muziek in Nijmegen (www.eig.nl). they have really low prices a very big assortiment and good service. Also guitarstrings (D addario EXL 120 0.09 mm) are very cheap there. I bought a box with 10 sets for about 30-35 euro.